Standing still a crime

25052016

Just a couple of days ago, PPT posted on some of the military junta’s more bizarre bans as it went to extraordinary lengths to suppress anti-coup activists. We mentioned three-finger salutes, reading books in public places and the eating of sandwiches, all seen as threatening displays of disobedience by anti-coup activists. That ridiculousness reached the military court where a three month jail term was given to an elderly teacher accused of sedition for giving flower to an anti-junta activist.

Ever alert to such seditious acts, the balmy lot running Thailand (into the ground) have charged Arnon Nampa, “a human rights lawyer and a core leader of Resistant Citizen, an anti-junta activist group,” with arranging “standing still” activities that were a silent protest against the detention of critics.

Standing still can land you in jail in Thailand

According to Prachatai, prosecutors have “charged him with hosting two standing still activities — one on 20 April to demand that the junta release Watana Muangsook, an embattled Pheu Thai politician who was then detained by the military, and another on 27 April to demand that the junta release eight abducted junta critics who were administrators of the Facebook page ‘We Love Gen Prayut,’ a satirical page mocking the Thai junta leader.”

As Prachatai explains, although several “people participated in the standing still activities, the prosecutor filed charges against [Arnon] only, reasoning that he was the coordinator of the activities…”. He could be fined up to 10,000 baht for each offense.